World's largest particle accelerator heats thousands of homes in France

Since mid-January, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle accelerator, has been supplying heat to thousands of homes and businesses in the French town of Ferney-Voltaire. This initiative uses a newly activated heat-exchange system that captures waste heat from the accelerator’s cooling circuits and feeds it into the town’s district heating network. By repurposing the hot water that would normally be cooled and released into the atmosphere, CERN is providing up to five megawatts (MW) of thermal energy, with potential to double this when the accelerator is fully operational. This effort significantly reduces CO2 emissions by replacing traditional heating sources. The heat-recovery system is connected at Point 8 of the LHC, located near the French-Swiss border, where cryogenic equipment requires continuous cooling. Even during the upcoming multi-year Long Shutdown 3 (LS3) for upgrades, CERN will continue supplying between one and five MW of heat, except for a few months.